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Northern Arizona's Corey Gorgas, New York Prep Standout Brooke Rauber Capture Junior Titles at USATF Cross Country Championships

Published by
DyeStat.com   Jan 19th 2020, 12:35pm
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Gorgas, competing in first cross country race in more than a year, leads Michigan reunion run as Bishop and Comerford also qualify for Pan American Cup in Canada; Rauber becomes youngest women’s winner since Berry in 2016, placing in front of five collegiate athletes

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

SAN DIEGO – The Pan American Cross Country Cup next month will represent most of the Western Hemisphere.

For Team USA, the U-20 men’s lineup will be largely represented from communities separated by an hour drive in the Upper Midwest.

Michigan natives Corey Gorgas, Evan Bishop and Alex Comerford finished first, second and fourth, respectively, Saturday in the junior men’s 8-kilometer race at the USATF Cross Country Championships at Mission Bay Park, all qualifying for the Pan Am event Feb. 29 at Bear Mountain in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

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The top six athletes in both genders in the junior and senior races Saturday were eligible to run in Canada.
Gorgas, a redshirt freshman at Northern Arizona University, clocked 25 minutes, 44.8 seconds to produce a 37-second victory.

Tully NY junior Brooke Rauber won the girls 6-kilometer race in 22:11, also pulling away late in the race for a 36-second triumph.

Anthony Rotich, formerly a Texas El Paso standout, won the men’s senior 10-kilometer title in 30:35.8. Colorado native and former USATF half marathon winner Natosha Rogers prevailed in the women’s senior 10-kilometer race in 35:45.

Gorgas ran his first cross country race in more than a year Saturday, but looked like a cagy veteran, building upon his lead throughout the race.

He checked off a number of items on his list, including first cross country race back, a Pan Am ticket and a look toward a bright future at Northern Arizona, already one of the country’s elite programs, but also adding the nation’s top high schooler, Newbury Park's Nico Young, next year.

“I missed it,” Gorgas said. “Racing is such a great experience. It’s awesome to come out here and this is really just getting some early experience for next cross country season and helping my boys out a bit.”

He was speaking of the Lumberjacks, but he could have been talking about western Michigan, too.

Gorgas is from Saugatuck on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. About 40 miles to the northeast is Grand Rapids, where Bishop lives. Bishop, a senior at East Grand Rapids High, placed second in 26:21.6.

A little over a month ago, Bishop placed sixth in the Foot Locker National Championships across town at Balboa Park. Saturday was his third time running in San Diego, where it was 65 degrees and sunny with an ocean breeze during the race.

Not surprisingly, Bishop said “he loved it.”

“I was nervous,” he said. “There was a lot of good guys in here that I didn’t know. It’s a bunch of college guys. I wasn’t sure what to expect, really, and it was a longer distance, too. So I tried to just stay relaxed.”

Was there a Michigan plan in the works?

Not exactly ... but it was discussed.

“We saw each other on the entries, and we talked before (the race),” Bishop said. “And we’re like, ‘OK, if we can get the three of us out to make Team USA, that would be really sweet.”

Comerford, a Syracuse redshirt freshman from Kalamazoo, said he tried to just stay with the front group and was successful, placing fourth in 26:40.7.

“It’s so awesome,” he said. “I know these guys so well. We ran against each other a lot in high school. It’s such a great opportunity.”

Said Gorgas: “Those are guys that I have been really good friends and competitors with since middle school. I’ve known those guys for a long time, so it’s really fun to come out here, across the country, and get to compete with the same guys who helped me start out my running career early on.”

Utah State freshman Bridger Altice placed third in 26:38.2. Gabe Simonsen, a junior from Mustang High near Oklahoma City, finished fifth in 27:14.8 and Toledo’s Jacob Harris was sixth in 27:16.7 to round out the Team USA men’s U-20 qualifiers.

Rauber enjoyed an impressive return to the West Coast after finishing seventh Dec. 7 in Portland, Ore., at Nike Cross Nationals.

Like Gorgas, Rauber also took control early but got a stubborn challenge from Rayna Stanziano, a freshman at St. Mary’s in Northern California and a Concord High graduate, who stayed on Rauber’s heels for about half the race.

Rauber, the youngest of the six women’s U-20 qualifiers, employed her hill strategy on the few rolling ups and downs at Mission Bay. She became the first high school junior to capture the women’s title since Melissa Berry of Sheldon OR won in 2016.

“I like to consider myself a hill runner, so I tried to push the hills a little bit,” Rauber said. “I put in a couple surges here and there, and eventually, it just worked in my favor.”

In addition to the Pan Ams, Rauber sees herself focusing on the 1,500 meters during the indoor season and more on the 2,000-meter steeplechase in the outdoor season.

Winning Saturday was a cherry on top for her.

“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” she said.

Stanziano was second in 22:47.6. Northwestern freshman Kalea Bartolotto, who prepped in California at Granada High in Livermore, was third in 23:09.5. She will be joined on the American roster by Northwestern teammate and sixth-place finisher Abigail Osterlund (23:24.9).

Utah State’s Bailey Brinkerhoff was fourth in 23:17.6, followed by Bradley’s Sophia McDonnell in fifth in 23:22.3, as five college freshmen joined Rauber in qualifying to compete in Canada.

Wings of America, relying on the top four scorers from its lineup, captured the men’s Junior team title to increase the program’s overall total to 32 championships.

Rogers, from Littleton, Colo., and a former Texas A&M standout representing the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project, emerged from a wide-open field, surging ahead of to take control of the senior women’s race and record her biggest win since the 2017 USATF Half Marathon in Ohio.

Rogers said she missed all of last year due to injury but said Saturday was definitely a “confidence boost.”

“I’m still trying to get used to this running thing again,” she said.

She is undecided on Pan Ams, as the USATF 15K Championships are the following week, and she’s planning on competing there.

Paige Stoner, a former Syracuse standout and seventh-place finisher in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the USATF Outdoor Championships, represented Reebok Boston Track Club by finishing in second place in 36:06.9. Carrie Verdon, formerly of Colorado and now with Boulder Track Club, was third in 36:24, with Sarah Pease of Oiselle placing fourth in 36:38.8. Pease ran for the University of Indiana and now coaches distance runners there.

Two former Loyola Marymount teammates, Grace Graham-Zamudio of Cal Coast Track Club and Danielle Shanahan of HOKA ONE ONE Northern Arizona Elite, placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in 36:57.1 and 37:00.7.

In the men’s senior race, Rotich headed a trio of Nike/U.S. Army WCAP runners – who set a fast, pack-breaking pace, and eventually surged ahead of Emmanuel Bor in the final mile to win.

For Bor, who clocked 30:57.5, it was his second consecutive runner-up finish at the USATF Cross Country Championships after placing behind Shadrack Kipchirchir at last year’s meet in Florida.

Lawi Lalang placed third in 31:00, staying ahead of HOKA ONE ONE athlete Dillon Maggard (fourth, 31:07.4) and HOKA ONE ONE Northern Arizona Elite’s Nick Hauger (fifth, 31:07.6), a former Portland standout in his first cross country race since 2018. Matt Welch of Flagstaff, Ariz., placed sixth in 31:21.1.



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